Oil slips from four-month highs

Oil prices fell on Thursday, slipping back from four-month highs as investors focused on the risk that emerging market crises and trade disputes could dent demand even as supply tightens.

Benchmark Brent crude oil was down 65 cents a barrel at $79.09 by 1000 GMT. US light crude fell $1.15 to a low of $69.22 a barrel and was last at $69.35, down $1.02.

The International Energy Agency said on Thursday that although the oil market was tightening at the moment and world oil demand would soon reach 100 million barrels per day (bpd), global economic risks were mounting.

“Things are tightening up,” the agency said in its monthly report, but added: “As we move into 2019, a possible risk to our forecast lies in some key emerging economies, partly due to currency depreciations versus the US dollar raising the cost of imported energy.”

“In addition, there is a risk to growth from an escalation of trade disputes,” the Paris-based agency said.